We can look up anybody in the staff directory and the staff grade is there.
From the looks of things, I suspect the pay bandings in the US are a lot wider vs the UK.
Not sure if you have this in the US but over here we also split the pay bands into two parts.
London vs Outside London
The pay in London tends to be about 20-40% higher vs outside of London.
Edit: looks like NAs company does do it geographically
We have a pretty strong pay band/title relationship up until you get the management level, where it then diverges into hopeless nonsense and enough overlap that someone with a lower title could be paid a similar total comp as someone a few notches up in either the same department or a completely different function. My thought on that - everyone is making plenty such that they can can afford a very nice lifestyle along with some splurges, and nearly everyone has to still make some sort of decision on which splurges they focus on (big house, fancy private schools, expensive vacations, etc) rather than have it all. Maybe that goes away once you are at the senior management level, but who cares at the points in between.
Iâm not aware that my current company publishes even pay bands. My prior company did not, except for the time a spreadsheet was published with that info. The column was hidden but folks figured it out, and a shit show ensued when some people realized they were two pay grades lower than the person sitting next to them with the same job and title.
Iâve only shared any detailed level of financial info with my wife and one fried who I really trust. He happens to be an engineer that is in about the same financial position so itâs not weird, I donât think. Since my wife doesnât like to noodle on financial topics heâs my go-to when I have a question or want to celebrate a milestone.
I try to talk about it with my wife, but she does not really have an interest. I get my spreadsheet out and her eyes glaze over.
My sister knows because when she got a recent promotion she wanted to know if she had passed me yet (she is younger, more ambitious, and more competent, so it is only a matter of time).
We have two couples that we are pretty close with. One couple is in similar circumstances, and we do not talk numbers, but have ballpark ideas. The other couple I would guess has a negative net worth, so try not to say much around them. Though, once he did overhear about how we have our house paid off, and it kind of shocked him.
It was before my time, but I heard about a report that used to be published at my company with everybodyâs salary. Similar shit show ensued.
California has some âuniqueâ laws about salaries. Job postings do require a range, but they are often something like $X to $2X. You are also not allowed to ask about current salary when making an offer to a candidate. Even internally.
Obviously Iâve been quite explicit on this forum
$1,610,147 assets + 321,527 house = $1,931,674
But in real life the only person who I tell is my mom - and I would tell my sister if she wanted to know. I would tell friends if asked but wouldnât broach the subject.
Iâm the only actuary in my location, so when I talk with one co-worker at the same pay band I talk more about the change in $ and the relative amount of bonus/stock/options. For the next 8 days anywayâŚ
I generally donât share, but thatâs also situation-specific. Mrs. H is generally aware of our finances, but she also grew up pretty dirt poor so if it stays âout of sight, out of mindâ it doesnât shock her like it does when we talk numbers. Dad knew, because it was a thing for him but he grew up dirt poor so money was a semi-fixation for him.
The kids have a general idea, weâve talked to them on occasion and I think theyâre oh, thatâs nice ⌠whatever, not something I have to worry about. My very best friends might have general idea, one of them has more of an idea because weâve talked about our respective financial situations.
My wife knows most everything.
My (adult) kids know general ideas; but I do make them aware of special assets (like irrevocable trusts) and elements for which they are primary or secondary beneficiaries.
When my kids were younger, we did have discussions around our familyâs general financial position relative to many of their classmates.
Trick question, these are the same thing every time I get paid.
Situation specificâŚits certainly easier to discuss things with others who have their shit together financially. Doesnât mean they need to have a comparable net worth or income, but the basics like âowns house, is not living paycheck to paycheck, and can afford some nice things without enormous sacrificeâ makes it all more sharable.
The conversations with my dad might be an interesting specific situationâŚhe worked hard at a union job, retired when he was 54.5 (stretched out just long enough to go directly to retirement), has something like a 5M net worth now while my parents probably spend less than their monthly pensions and SS. They will leave a lot behind one day, and I think he is proud of being able to provide his kids and grandkids thatâŚbut my sister and I both have our shit together (also a big thanks to my parents) and this likely wont change our lives at all. He seems plenty happy to bring up money and finances all the time, but I sense there is some need to be a little delicate with this stuff.
Spouse knows.
No one else applies to the âNeed To Knowâ Basis.
I had a pretty good childhood, so I am mature enough not to need praise.
(Please like this post!!)
And I also know that information about oneself can be used against oneself.
Today, in my company, I can go to the HR section of the corporate intranet and see a big spreadsheet that has one tab per job family, showing all the salary bands, their titles, the texbook description of the duties, and pay ranges for that jobĂgrade in each of theâŚI forget whether itâs 5 or 7⌠COL bands.
I can also look anyone up in the corporate directory, and their title will align with an entry in the spreadsheet.
The HR spreadsheet also has a tab that indicates which office (or residence state/metro, for full-time WFH) is in which COL band.
The salary ranges can be pretty narrow at the bottom levels, and rather broad at the top level. Iâm in the second-highest level of the actuarial job family; my salary is greater than the floor for the highest level, and Iâm only about 75% of the way up to the ceiling for my range. (Thatâs a good thing, since iâm on an individual contributor track, which doesnât extend up to that higher level.)
In our annual raise documents, we are reminded what the salary range is given our job family/grade. Target bonus is also standardized by salary grade.
None of this applies to C-suite and one level below.
Thereâs currently no drama around this. We accept it as given, and HR says that having this level of openness helps protect the company from claims of inequities.
When the structure was introduced 15-ish years ago, however⌠part of the change was described as management concern about lack of clarity in duties based on job title, and an inflation of those titlesâŚso there would be no more titles internally, only salary grades. (Of course, our salary grade names quickly evolved back to being our job titles.)
I the office where I was physically working, there were a couple of former VPs that were disappointed to find that I, a lowly âdirectorâ (who became a âconsultantâ), was a peer of theirs, and a handful of AVPs that were surprised to discover that I outranked them.
What I imagined when I read this was that your titles are basically cell references in Excel (COL x grade). Well, âJoe over there is an B7, and Barb is a C9â.